Am I too old for career nostalgia?

I recently found out that someone I used to work with lived here in the same town as I do now and I emailed her. I found out from the girls that I work with that she teaches, and is a great teacher. She graduated a year ahead of me(with my best friend Christi). This person (Jane Doe, or JD) worked with me in the ER- or the Trenches. I was so excited to hear that someone I knew from before lived here.

I emailed her and as updated her on where I have been in the last three years since I have last seen her I found myself going back in my mind to the the "Trenches" of the ER. I was have some nostalgia for the ER...I was smiling and laughing while I was writing about those days I would leave the ER in tears in.

My friend JD wrote back and reminded me of some of the antics friends/co-workers that made me roll my eyes....I spend the next few hours going back in my mind and telling Lance stories like...

1. This one time there was this renal failure man that came in and had all but his heart in the grave. He was rotted from the inside out. He looked like a zombie- had liver failure too, and had acsites, and a left leg amputee. He coded not to long after arrival. He was full of tubes, but ended up full of air. I was was alone in the room with my friend Deann....the door was shut....and the BBBBBRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP........it lasted about a minute. no lie. We could not hold it in. We had to laugh. It was the longest fart ever. From a dead zombie man. yeck. That freaked the heck out of us...and we were ER nurses used to looking at dead men. We ARE TOUGH WOMEN!!!!.....WE wouldn't leave each other alone in there. THEN.....the DUDE did that last SIGH of life...and his head kind of turned to the....that we were standing on.

Unbelievable huh? Believe it baby. We were totally freaked out is all I can say.


2. We had a homeless man that came in with really stinky feet that was unconscious and coded..and had to have his wet nasty shoes taken off. SO after the shoes came off the Doc kept going on and on about his feet...well, as we are pushing drugs and doing chest compressions cleaning feet are NOT our main concern....he is LUCKY we took off his clothes...we did b/c we had to take off the wet cold clothes.....WELL, out humorous doctor decided to take large gloves and put then over the entire foot. It was hysterical...but it worked. The feet didn't stink anymore, but they looked funny.

3. We also had an ER doc that like to wear an FBI vest...I am not EVEN going to explain that one.


How is it that we could go from blood and guts, vomit and crap....and then eat. I mean literally. To this day I can- it doesn't matter. I am not grossed out all. People that I work at the Urgent Care clinic get so grossed out...and the seasoned ER nurses are like me- they understand. It is like there is a switch you have to turn off.

It is a good thing or not?

To be able to change a babies diaper and then go eat some chocolate pudding?